H. J. Webber

“ If the cultivated varieties and breeds of wheat, oats, corn, cotton, potatoes, cattle, sheep, hogs and horses were all destroyed from the earth and we were forced to go back to wild nature and begin the improvement over again, it is probable that the world would be almost depopulated and that the progeny of the few hardy individuals that survived would, in the centuries that followed, repeat the history of plant and animal improvement that has taken place in the past. Doubtless, however, new plants and animals now unknown to us would be the successful ones in the new evolution. ”

“ The greatness of the possibilities stretches before the enthusiastic breeder as his mind spans the years filled with the battles of conquest and achievement in the building up of new industries, like a panorama of the wars and struggles in the building of a nation. ”

“ In many cases the wild ancestors of our cultivated plants are not positively known. It is not probable that the ancestral types have become extinct, but that the cultivated forms have been so greatly modified that the relationship can not now be recognized with certainty. If Ægilops ovata, a wild grass of southern Europe, is the original ancestral form of wheat, as is supposed by some botanists, we have very many native grasses in various parts of the United States, which in an unimproved state have much larger grains and would seem to be equally worthy of cultivation and improvement. ”

“ The problem of all problems confronting us is the necessity of increasing the production of food stuffs. How can this be done? Obviously the problem can be attacked from many sides, but the side that I desire to emphasize is the conservation of the best breeding stock of plants and animals. This seems a simple matter, but I am sure that the far-reaching possibilities of such conservation are not understood and are beyond our conception at the present time, as our viewpoint is necessarily limited by our present knowledge. ”

“ Recognizing the urgency of the problem as I do, how ever, I should be remiss of my duty did I not use such powers and gifts as have been given me to urge forward a project that sooner or later will be recognized as one of the keystones of the conservation movement.
The materials for the consummation of the ideals I have presented are all around us. The brawn and brain for the service is awaiting the opportunity. The service will be long and difficult, however, and the servant must live while engaged in the task. Only by long, consecutive years of service can the highest ideals be reached. ”

“ The rapid development of the science and art of breeding places us to-day in position to secure improvements much more rapidly than has been done in the past. It would not be astonishing if from 25 to 50 years of careful, intelligent breeding would accomplish with a wild plant what has required many centuries under the crude methods of our ancestors.
It may be asked why we should be in haste to take up the improvement of our native plants. ”

“ In the development of leguminous crops we have a valuable field of research. Of the many hundreds of legumes, we now cultivate only about a dozen species, such as beans, peas, clover, alfalfa, crimson clover, cowpeas, soy beans and the like, representing a natural adaptation to as many localities. None of the species ordinarily cultivated in the northern United States are natives of this great section. Yet an examination of the botanies shows that some 150 different species of legumes are natives of this section. ”

“ Grain, forage and special fruit crops, not necessarily forest trees, require to be as carefully considered, and here again breeding to secure good races adapted to the conditions will be the key note of success. All this requires time, and the generations to follow will not have the time and certainly not the money if they do not repudiate our war debts. ”

“ Doubtless the mere mentioning of the improvement of native plants suggests to the minds of each one of you some wild plant that you have observed and thought to possess valuable qualities. If our sources of nitrogen supply are to be exhausted soon, we must cultivate more leguminous crops that can gather their own nitrogen and improve the soil in this respect while furnishing crops. We should have leguminous tuber crops to take the place of potatoes, beets and turnips. ”

“ Certainly much of this land should be in forest, or in tree crops of some sort, but we want tree crops, at least in many cases, that will return food as well as shelter. The Italian yield of chestnuts is said to average 12 bushels per acre, and J. Russell Smith states that "the value of European mountain-side chestnut orchards equals acre for acre the Illinois corn belt." The kinds of trees to plant in such areas for wood, fruit, sugar, starch, camphor or forage require careful study and the proper breeding in order to secure the best sorts possible. ”

“ When we realize the little promise exhibited by the native grapes, tomatoes and potatoes from which our cultivated sorts have sprung, we gain a conception of the tremendous increases that can be brought about by a century of cultivation, even when the breeding is of desultory nature. ”

“ THE conservation movement had its inception in the wasteful methods practised in the utilization of our national resources, such as our forests and mineral deposits. Alfred Russel Wallace, the great English evolutionist and contemporary of Darwin, has characterized the last century as a century of despoliation of the natural resources of the earth. Our forests have been ruthlessly destroyed until good lumber has reached a very high price, and turpentine and resin in sufficient quantities to meet the world's requirements can scarcely be obtained. ”

“ Four of the high yielding sorts in 1911 gave an increased yield of over 2 tons per acre, or practically double the average yield of the checks, which is an astonishing figure and can be explained only by the fact that timothy has never been improved by breeding and still consists, as generally cultivated, of a motley array of many different types.
Hay is one of the largest agricultural crops of the United States, outranking all other crops, except corn, in total value of production. ”

“ The marvelous success achieved, which has resulted in the production of a large number of fine varieties, and established vine growing in the eastern and central United States, is one of the important achievements of our many-sided national history. ”

“ In summarizing this discussion I may say that to one unfamiliar with the possibilities of breeding the outcome of such experiments may appear doubtful. We need no lamp to guide us except that of experience. ”

“ Within the memory of man the tomato has been introduced into cultivation and advanced in size from a fruit of 3/4 of an inch in diameter to our fine modern fruits, some of which grow as large as 4 inches in diameter. ”

“ Nevertheless, as judged by our present knowledge, the possibilities are so great as to place this factor, I believe, among the important features of the conservation movement.
What do we not owe to our domesticated and improved plants and animals? They are the greatest heritage that has come down to us from our ancestors. ”

“ The utilization of these waste lands forms one of our great national problems, and the beginning of the solution of the problem rests in finding the crops best adapted to such areas or in all probability in breeding crops that will be adapted to them. ”

“ The high cost of living at the present time and the simpler living that thousands of families have been compelled to adopt is a reminder of the necessity, even to the present generation, of a careful study of the existing conditions. ”

“ Who has hybridized such trees to get larger and better fruits? The world should not be compelled to wait much longer for such improvements. We need the improved stock for planting. Some trees live a century before they reach young manhood.
Persimmons, pawpaws, huckleberries, elderberries, hawthorns and hosts of other native fruits are well worth improvement and might be utilized not only for human food but for hogs, sheep and poultry. ”

“ We all know that the population of this country and of the world is increasing so rapidly that the time is not far distant when our children will have great difficulty in producing the necessary supplies to maintain life. ”

“ It is a work for the state and the nation, but I fear they will be too slow to recognize the long-time requirements of the work. Political institutions demand too quick results. I feel that the most hopeful method of accomplishing some of the ideals outlined is through endowed institutions. ”

“ The teeming millions of fifty and one hundred years hence will not have the rich, virgin lands on which to extend their agriculture, the primeval forests, the apparently inexhaustible coal beds, the extensive deposits of phosphates, nitrates and potash salts, to use in rebuilding their soils. All these sources of supply that we have utilized and found so necessary to life will be gone or rapidly disappearing, and the extent of the demand will meanwhile have increased many fold. ”

“ That we now cultivate wheat, oats, corn and the like is probably in large measure due to the accident that attempts to artificially cultivate plants started in regions where the wild ancestors of these plants were native. ”

“ We have only considered the value of these grasses from the standpoint of their grain development; but it is of almost equal importance to consider their value as forage crops for animal food, and here a much greater latitude for selection is possible. A very large number of our native plants should be tested and the most promising improved for forage purposes. ”

“ The sterile sandy lands, and the low, wet lands, the stony lands and the hill lands, the mountain lands of high altitude and the barren lands of deserts lacking water, and the like, all uncultivatable and largely worthless for crops at present grown, make up far the larger part of our vast domain. ”

“ Men must consecrate their lives to this achievement. The service will be pleasant and the scientific results gathered from year to year will repay the worker, but means must be found to place the investigator beyond the temptation of other employment, as permanency of tenure in such work will be of the highest importance. ”

“ Institutions to conduct such work could be tied up with some of our great universities to establish the proper scientific relationship, and should be in such close cooperation with these universities that graduate students could be utilized in connection with the investigations and trained in the service. ”

“ Travel through the high, hilly and mountainous regions of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia, and you find vast areas covered mainly with a low growth of young trees and bushes, the main forests having been removed. ”